wait, is it a bad idea to build labs quickly? is it too financially hindering to fleet-building?
Labs have two costs; the first is the price, the second is the precious logistics space. Logistics space itself is quite expensive, and the more dense you build the more expensive it gets. Then there's the fact that the lab doesn't even do anything, it just lets you buy increasingly expensive techs. All things account, you may be sacrificing 10-20 frigates just to get a single high level tech, and that's suicidal. You can handle that if you're researching a military tech that's going to boost your combat power (particularly heavies or a high-level support cruiser), but for a civic tech? You'll get killed.
anything beyond 5 is not usually necessary until late game...
Actually, Vasari goes for the 6th military lab quite often to unlock the Subverter's special ability. Advent will occasionally hit the 6th lab for meteor control. It's TEC that has the natural stopping point at 5 with heavies.
On the civic end, the Vasari are one of the few factions that have no natural stopping point until later in the tree. The 2-lab minimum for ice/volcanics stands, of course. Beyond that, you have 3 for culture, 4 for trade, and 5 for phase stabilizers. So Vasari is the only faction that has a wonderful graduation of techs in its civic tree. Advent has nothing past the 3-civic lab mark. TEC is a little weird depending on how much you can spare for economic techs.
